external factors that serve as threats for operations
Every organization is continuously faced with external factors that serve as threats for their operations. In the occasion a Business is confronted by a threat, a thorough analysis is done to understand what necessary steps should be taken to mitigate the risks before they result to more loses for the organization and stakeholders. For instance, bush fires in Australia has impacted many businesses, especially the tourism and travel industry. The effect on the industry has been in terms of cancelled bookings and events, and the lack of tourists. The fires also resulted in employees being unable to get to work. In extreme cases, some businesses were severely affected and recorded long term impacts forcing them to shut down operations. The tourism companies, other companies (firm) and the local community (stakeholders) faced a specific threat from the external environment (bushfires). Thus to analyze the impact of the risk and find ways to be back in business, both affected parties needed to find a possible solution using strategies for dealing with threats from the external environment.
To address the threat, it is wise for the affected businesses to take a cooperative approach primarily because both the companies and the stakeholders have been greatly affected. The cooperative strategy involves two affected parties taking an equal role in contributing to a course of action that will mutually benefit each party. For this case, both parties can suggest alternative ways to secure their businesses when bushfires hit. Affected companies should consider relocating their businesses to areas which are not considered bushfire-prone. This move will protect the loss of valuable equipment’s and properties thus avoiding further losses on such occasions. Equally, businesses in collaboration with the affected stakeholders, particularly those communities living in the affected areas should establish ways to respond swiftly in the event of a fire to ensure the safety of its employees and business assets. Tourism based businesses should cooperate with the community to attract back visitors and tourists. The community can do this by reassuring the new visitors or tourists that Australia has more safe and amazing places to explore.
From a personal perspective, the strategy will not be an entirely adequate solution for addressing the external threat. Primarily because most businesses which were completely wiped out will require more than cooperation to regain their status, besides bushfires are unpredictable, and one cannot be entirely prepared. The strategy is, therefore, not satisfactory enough and does not wholly address the impact of the external threat(bushfires) or provide dependable solutions. However, the benefits of cooperation strategy are that both parties aim to achieve mutual goals; thus, none shares the losses alone. The approach also has lower costs since both parties take an active role in the problem solving and provision of resources to start over. The ultimate value of cooperation for the described situation is that both the organization and the community play equal parts in reducing the impact of the threat.
Additionally, businesses that adopt this strategy have positive publicity, especially with the example above tourism industries that embrace this strategy displays a positive light to other interested groups of people or competing businesses. Cooperating in the face of a threat means that both affected parties take equal responsibility for the consequences and move forward by providing ideas or information that can help improve the situation. The strategy has several inadequacies but is more beneficial compared to the other three strategies.